Tutukaka Tag | The Ring Finders

Ring lost in Surf at Woolleys Bay, Recovered at 4am

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
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Joanne posted on Facebook that she had lost her special silver ring in the surf at Woolleys bay, and asked if anyone had found it.

Knowing the beach well, I knew the ring would already be well under the surface, and likely quite deep with a few tides having passed since.
I very rarely solicit recoveries, however there was a very small window to be able to have any chance of recovering this ring, so I made contact.

Leaving at 1am that night, I made the two hour drive to Woolleys Bay. There was still enough moonlight to see without artificial lights, it’s very meditative searching a remote surf beach at night.
I got started in the cool morning air.

Joanne had given me a rough location, the time it was lost and a photo taken at the time showing the group in the water.

Recent rough seas had changed the contour of the beach and I calculated the delicate silver ring would likely have moved further seawards down the steep slope so biased the first grid to account for this.

As the tide started to turn and the sweeping waves started to absorb my grid lines, I heard a small fluctuation in the background tone.
I re-scanned it with different settings and decided it was definitely a viable target

The shingle was below tide water level and collapsed as quickly as I could dig with the scoop. After about four or five rapid scoops, whatever it was now lay in the small mound on the beach.
It didn’t take long before a silver ring matching the description was laying in my hand.

4am was a bit too early to call Joanne with the good news(!),  so I headed off to kill some time until a more civilised hour.

Later that day, Joanne met up with me a little way down the coast at Whangaumu Bay for the handover.

It wasn’t a valuable ring, but was treasured by Joanne as it had been purchased on a holiday and encapsulated those special memories.
You couldn’t replace that.

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It’s Not all Gold. Lawn cleared of Nails…

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
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As I was waiting for the tide to fall at Ngunguru for a recovery, I was browsing the local social media.
Angie had just posted asking for someone with a detector to find and remove nails from her lawn in the area around an old bonfire site.

I had time to kill, so I got in touch.

Fifteen minutes after her post, I handed Angie my spare pinpointer, and after a very quick rundown on how to use it, we were both on hands and knees sweeping pinpointers across the bonfire site.

Initially targets were constant, but after about 30 minutes the signals faded away.

Time to get the coil out and check.

We had achieved about a 90% hit rate with just the pinpointers, and with the coil I identified the residuals.
Angie and I progressively removed these until the site was confirmed entirely clean.

There were suggestions on social media to use magnets, however these would not have released the bulk of the nails which were entrapped in the soil.

The specific equipment and expertise of a ringfinder ensured a 100% removal of ALL nails from her lawn.

 

 

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Signet Ring Lost in Sea at Tutukaka, Found after Two Weeks

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
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It was New Years Eve when Starlia was enjoying a swim at Whangaumu, near Tutukaka in New Zealand. As she stood in the sea, she was idly playing with the small engraved gold signet ring given to her on her 21st – when it slipped off and dropped.

Starlia and friends searched for some hours with masks and snorkels, but had to concede that her gold ring was lost to the sea.

Nearly two weeks later, she came across one of my recovery stories and got in touch. Was a recovery possible, and would I be able to help?

The next day found me walking the narrow track over the headland to the little bay. I wanted to catch the slack tide as the current flowing out from the Ngunguru estuary can be fierce in places. This makes life difficult when you’re trying to stay in place while retrieving a target from deep in the sand. Starlia had mentioned that there were two ‘dog sized’ rocks as a reference point.

As I walked the track that overlooks the bay, I looked down and saw two largish rocks that had been placed under the water about 10m off the beach. « Excellent, they’ve marked where they think they lost it ».

I was soon in the water and started the search around the rocks. A couple of fishing sinkers and a $1 coin that had been in the tide for many years told me that that no metal detectors had been through here since the loss, so the ring was still here – somewhere…

I rolled the rocks over – just in case they had inadvertently placed them ON the ring… Nothing.

Priding myself on an exceptional recovery rate, I could say with certainty the ring was not near the two rocks. Could the sand have built up during the bad weather we had over New Year or through natural sediment shift? I fell back onto my mantra of « Trust no-one. Assume Nothing. Check everything ».

Discounting the cairn, I started to search on the basis of no defined start point and took the grid right out to the edge of the channel dropoff.

In the clear water, I could see the usual sea life swim past. A school of yellow eye mullet momentarily investigated the cloud of sediment I was raising, the steady parade of small Eagle Rays leaving the estuary. Several schools of juvenile Kahawai and even a small Bronze Whaler slid past between me and the beach. The clarity was a pleasant change to the scuba recovery I had completed the previous day in zero visibility! That story will be up in coming days.

I had covered maybe 60% of the bay when Starlia arrived and I waded ashore to meet and greet.
The cairn of rocks wasn’t theirs!

Starlia pointed out two other rocks that I hadn’t yet reached, I felt better knowing the ring hadn’t been missed. Although the tide had now turned and the incoming current was starting to build rapidly. I quickly covered the deeper sections at the drop off before they became unworkable.

More fishing sinkers and rusting bottle caps then deep down, a faint smooth tone, very quiet but consistent. It didn’t have the harshness of a cap, nor the rude raspiness of a fishing sinker, but was it another aluminium can tab?

One scoop…two, the mobile sand and the current was backfilling the hole as fast as I could dig. This is when you can lose a ring beyond range of the machine if not careful as it sinks in the disturbed sands. I refixed the location and went deep, heaving several kilos of sand out of the hole. The hole was now quiet, but was it the ring?

I spread the scoop contents out across the bottom, waved the coil over it and a beautiful pure tone sang out. Only one thing sounds like that!

Rescooped the patch of sand where ‘a’ ring lay and rinsed the scoop – in the corner was a delicate gold signet ring. Job done.

I held it up to Starlia who was watching from the beach. Whoops and yells from Starlia (and another couple who I hadn’t realised were watching).

After the photos and hugs, I started the climb back up the hill.

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Grandfathers Gold Ring Lost in Sea at Tutukaka, Found!

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
Contact:
Ring Finder – Ring Recovery Specialist…Lost ring? Lost necklace? Lost keys?… Metal Detector Service – Call ASAP 021 401626
Erin was enjoying a swim at Kowharewa Bay, near Tutukaka when he lost his grandfathers signet ring.
The ring was given to his grandfather on his 21st birthday, and had been passed down to him. One of those things that is truly irreplaceable.
His wife contacted me, and I arranged to meet him at Tutukaka the following day to try and recover this precious part of his family history.
I was on site a little ahead of him, so set about lining up landmarks from a photo his wife had sent me and estimating how far out he would have been given the state of the tide and the 90 minute window they were there.
Kowharewa Bay has a very shallow contour below low water mark, so « waist deep » is potentially a huge area. The timestamp on the photo was invaluable as it told me exactly what the tide level was at the time around loss.
Once that was done, I headed back to the car to get the wetsuit on and make a start.
It was still well before low water, so did a quick calculation of how much extra depth to allow – which ultimately meant the curious onlookers on the beach could only see a pair of headphones and dive mask gliding backwards and forwards through the waves, occasionally sinking out of sight to investigate a potential target.
I finished the first search pattern out to one side of the estimated location and was just turning to head over and start a second run on the other side when the coil drifted over a solid tone off to my side .
Slipping underwater, I fanned the sand away to reveal a well worn signet ring.
Ring recovery is a « Game of Inches ». It’s a slow, methodical, extremely disciplined procedure, when there’s a lot of trash signals it can be extremely mentally fatiguing as well as you listen to and analyse every response.
Get lazy with just one sweep of the coil and you could miss the target and walk right past it.
Had the coil not just grazed the ring in this instance it could have been a long 4-6Hrs in the water into the night until the search pattern opened up far enough to include it.
I waded ashore and phoned to let Erin know I had something for him!
He turned up about 5 minutes later and quickly had the ring back on his finger.
Tutukaka Ngunguru Matapouri lost ring Northland Jewellery Recoveries New Zealand Ringfinders Northland Jewellery Recoveries
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Handcrafted Titanium Wedding Ring Lost at Ngunguru – Found!

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
Contact:

Ring Finder – Ring Recovery Specialist…Lost ring? Lost necklace? Lost keys?… Metal Detector Service – Call ASAP 021 401626

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Josh contacted me explaining he had lost his handcrafted titanium wedding ring while swimming in the Ngunguru estuary the previous day.
It had been made by a friend for his wedding and whilst another could be made, it would never be the ‘same’ ring with the same memories.
A couple of local detectorists had been out to try their luck, however by this morning – the second day since loss, it had not yet been reported as found.

With a dawn start helping avoid most of the summer holiday traffic, I made the 130km trip in good time. Arriving about an hour before low water. This gave a small window where the current would allow a water search at slack tide, if needed.
While I waited for Josh to arrive, I thought I may as well get started, so grabbed the detector and headed down onto the mudflats.
My tracking experience enabled me to separate the straight line walkers tracks from the wandering footprints of someone looking for something from the previous day, although a couple of recently dug holes did have me concerned.
I had to assume the ring was still here until proven otherwise, so sorted out the areas of highest probability and started with the most likely area it could be located.
No sense in getting kitted up for a water search if I didn’t need to.

Ten minutes later, I lifted the ring out of the silt from in amongst some loose shells and walked back to the car to text Josh that I had « a present for him » when he got there.
I think there was some disbelief in his eyes that it actually was his ring when I handed it back – There wouldn’t be that many square titanium rings lying around 🙂
Hugs from his mum and handshakes from Josh and they headed off to enjoy the last day or so of their holiday up here.

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Ring Lost in Surf at Whangarei – Found after Four Days

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
Contact:
Ring Finder – Ring Recovery Specialist…Lost ring? Lost necklace? Lost keys?… Metal Detector Service – Call ASAP 021 401626
Merryn was having a swim at Whangaumu Bay near Whangarei in New Zealand when she felt her wedding ring slip off the finger. The water was too murky to see it, and it would have buried itself in the fluid sand instantly anyway.
It was with a heavy heart she walked away from it.
Shortly after, Merryn happened across a detecting mate of mine and mentioned it to him. Steve wasn’t able to help as it was a marine recovery – but he knew I could as an experienced ringfinder, and passed on Merryns details.
Four days after the loss, I arrived at Whangaumu with a rough verbal guide as to where it was, to get me started until Merryn was able to get there and pinpoint the spot.
I walked the dry sand above the high tide line looking for evidence of where she had been, and spotted two old towel marks in the sand. Must be the spot and I started work.
After a couple of hours being slapped and dunked by the surf, Merryn arrived and confirmed I was in the right place, but the towel marks weren’t hers! It was pure coincidence or human behaviour unconsciously picking the same spot for whatever reason!
The surf was quite dumpy with a lot of sand flowing down the beach. I told Merryn that in these conditions with the four day head start, odds were getting slim. She had to leave to go to another commitment so after watching anxiously for several minutes, left me to it.
Thirty minutes after she had driven away, I picked up a deep tone. Fanned the sand away with my feet and looked down through the suspended sediment to see the outline of her ring in the deep crater.
I scooped it, switched off the machine and headed straight back to the car to TXT her that her ring was now secured 🙂
This morning, I met with her to hand back her freshly polished ring…
Then promptly headed off to find another one nearby, this one lost in the sea five weeks ago.
That one was also saved and will be reunited with the owner in a couple of weeks. Watch this space 🙂
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